THIS DAY IN HISTORY

[IceWizard]

Venus Williams wins Wimbledon
for the first time






2000
July 09



On July 9, 2000, Venus Williams wins at Wimbledon for the first time. Her victory over defending
champion, Lindsay Davenport, made Williams the first Black female Wimbledon champion since
Althea Gibson won back-to-back titles in 1957 and 1958.

Overcoming a tough childhood in Compton, California, Williams became a champion women’s tennis
player with seven Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam doubles titles and four Olympic gold
medals. Williams and her sister Serena are considered two of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Williams was born on June 17, 1980, in Lynwood, California. Her father, a self-taught tennis coach,
trained his daughters on the local courts. When Williams was 10 years old, the family relocated to
West Palm Beach, Florida so Venus and Serena could attend a tennis academy.

By the age of 10, Williams’ serve topped off at an impressive 100 miles per hour. Thanks to that
serve and athletic prowess on the court, Williams was 63-0 on the United States Tennis Association
junior tour.

On October 31, 1994, Williams turned pro at 14 years old. In 1997, she became the first woman
since Pam Shriver in 1978 to reach the final of her first U.S. Open. In 1998, she won her first
Grand Slam at the Australian Open. A year later, she won the French Open women’s doubles
tournament with her sister.


When Williams won at Wimbledon in 2000, she said, “It’s really great because I’ve been working
so hard all my life to be here… It’s strange. I’d go to bed at night and I’d dream I’d won a Grand Slam,
but when I woke up, there was the nightmare. Now, I don’t have to wake up like that anymore.”

That same year she went on to win the U.S. Open, two gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympic
Games in Sydney and signed a $40 million sponsorship deal with Reebok.

In 2011, Williams revealed she was battling Sjögren syndrome, a chronic, incurable immune system
disorder. Many expected her to take a step back from tennis. Instead, she went on to win gold at
the 2012 Summer Olympics and the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon.



ALSO ON THIS DAY



RUSSIA
1762
Catherine the Great assumes power

On July 9, 1762, the wife of Russia’s new emperor, Peter III, rallies
the army regiments of St. Petersburg against her husband and is
proclaimed Empress Catherine II, the sole ruler of Russia. More
commonly known as Catherine the Great, she would stay on the
throne for the next ...
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COLD WAR
1960
Soviet Premier Khrushchev and President Eisenhower
trade threats over Cuba

President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
trade verbal threats over the future of Cuba. In the following years,
Cuba became a dangerous focus in the Cold War competition between
the United States and Russia. In January 1959, Cuban revolutionary Fidel ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1962
Bob Dylan records “Blowin’ In The Wind”

“This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write
no protest songs.” That was how Bob Dylan introduced one of the most
eloquent protest songs ever written when he first performed it publicly.
It was the spring of his first full year in New York City, ...
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1990S
1993
Romanov remains identified using DNA

British forensic scientists announce that they have positively identified the
remains of Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II; his wife, Czarina Alexandra; and
three of their daughters. The scientists used mitochondria DNA fingerprinting
to identify the bones, which had been excavated ...
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WOMEN’S HISTORY
1947
First female army officer is appointed

In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the
U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent
military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since ...
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SPORTS
1877
Wimbledon tournament begins

On July 9, 1877, the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club begins its
first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon, then an outer-suburb of London.
Twenty-one amateurs showed up to compete in the Gentlemen’s Singles
tournament, the only event at the first Wimbledon. The winner ...
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VIETNAM WAR
1971
United States turns over responsibility for the DMZ

Four miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), about 500 U.S. troops of
the 1st Brigade, 5th Mechanized Division turn over Fire Base Charlie 2 to
Saigon troops, completing the transfer of defense responsibilities for the
border area. On the previous day, nearby Fire Base Alpha ...
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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1850
President Zachary Taylor dies unexpectedly

On July 9, 1850, after only 16 months in office, President Zachary Taylor
dies after a brief illness. The exact cause of his death is still disputed
by some historians. On a scorching Fourth of July in Washington, D.C.,
Taylor attended festivities at the newly dedicated ...
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WESTWARD EXPANSION
1846
U.S. takes San Francisco from Mexico

An American naval captain occupies the small settlement of Yerba Buena,
a site that will later be renamed San Francisco. Europeans did not
encounter the spectacular San Francisco Bay until 1769, although
several explorers had sailed by it in earlier centuries. When Spanish ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1918
William Faulkner joins the Royal Air Force

William Faulkner joins the Royal Air Force on this day, but will never
see combat because World War I will end before he completes his
training. Faulkner joined the RAF after his high school sweetheart,
Estelle, married another man. He quit his hometown, Oxford, Mississippi, ...
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CRIME
1996
A family is brutally attacked on a walk in England

Dr. Lin Russell, her two daughters, Josie and Megan, and their dog,
Lucy, are all brutally attacked by a man wielding a hammer on their
way home to Nonington Village, Kent, England, after a swimming
gala. Forcing them to sit down in the woods, the attacker blindfolded
and tied up ...
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AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1777
New York elects its first governor

On July 9, 1777, New York elects Brigadier General George Clinton
as the first governor of the independent state of New York. Clinton
would go on to become New York’s longest-serving governor, as
well as the longest-serving governor in the United States,
holding the post until ...
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WORLD WAR I
1915
Germans surrender Southwest Africa
to Union of South Africa

On July 9, 1915, with the Central Powers pressing their advantage
on the Western Front during World War I, the Allies score a distant
victory, when military forces of the Union of South Africa accept a
German surrender in the territory of Southwest Africa.
The Union of South ...
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WORLD WAR II
1941
Enigma key broken

On July 9, 1941, British cryptologists help break the secret code
used by the German army to direct ground-to-air operations on
the Eastern front. British and Polish experts had already broken
many of the Enigma codes for the Western front. Enigma was the
Germans’ most ...
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